Elvis Fu Wrote:
w00t. Had a blast, but I'm exhausted today since I haven't been staying up as late in a while (OLD!).
Openers:
Drag the River Trio turned out to be a duo. Not bad, but not terrifically inspired whiskey-soaked reject country-rock. They have some potential but need some work. Had a surprisingly large crowd that was familiar with their music, so they may be local. Ida know. They were 10x better when the Lucero rhythm section joined them for the last couple songs.
Rocky Voltato is from Seattle. That's about the only redeeming quality for a guy in women's jeans, a Telecaster and a harmonica he hasn't quite learned to play yet. All the gals with big black eXes on their hands sang along. He sang a song he wrote about his father-in-law's suicide. Can't say I blame the old bastard. This douche also covered "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down" & "Plastic Jesus".
Lucero
Played for damn near two hours, loud. Good mix of new stuff & old stuff, plus some stuff I don't think I've heard before. The band seemed surprisingly sober, outside of bassist Stubblefield, who was beyond inebriated. He played well though despite being up a bit too loud.
One thing that really came through is how much drummer Roy Barry really rounds out their sound. The new album showed this more than previous efforts, but live it really came though. I'm no expert nor musician, but damn I really like his playing.
I was also expecting them to be more reckless or sloppy, but that wasn't the case at all. They played a lot of requests, and on a few they admitted they hadn't played them in some time, but overall they were solid. Some added live goodness on a Venable solo or some extra growls or whoops from Nichols turned things up as well.
Favorite Non-Musical Part:
During a brief break between songs, Stubblefield stumbled over to the mic to say, "I just want to take the opportunity to say that I'm glad we're back in The South."
Nichols gave him a looked, and with a sly grin replied, "Well, barely."
Stubblefield yelled something (he didn't have his own mic).
Nichols replied, "Hell, I know where the Mason-Dixon Line is, and from what I can tell they put it too far North."
That cracked me up, and rankled some of the Maryland crowd. Speaking of the crowd, I haven't hung in Baltimore in a while (I live about 45 mins from this particular venue), and god it's turning into John Waters' wildest dreams. So trashy. I'm not hip by any means, but I was surprised at the sheer number of horrible neck tattoos ("It's an eye to watch my back, yo") and young girls with full ink sleeves. No wonder the unemployment rate is 30% in some parts of the City. Jesus.
Would it have killed you to post this on Hip-D, instead?
